Happy New Year!

Since we still have our tree and decorations up, I can still post holiday pictures, right?!

We've seen the light show at Macy's in Philadelphia before but when we were in the city on Christmas Eve we caught part of it again.   

The Cratchit family scene in the Dickens Village display at Macy's.

Santa!   Yes, I got my picture taken with him.  No, I'm not posting it here.  It's bad enough I put it on FB. 

One of our Christmas decorations ...

And another ... 

And another ...

And another ...

And yet another ...

Way back when my son was a wee little guy, he made us this Christmas ornament in school. 

An old ornament from when my husband was young.

Our first Christmas together, 1983.

Since I usually have a theme color going on our big tree in the living room, I'm now using this skinny pine tree to hold our special ornaments.

Our dog Rev was feeling festive for the New Year.

Ollie thinks he's a glamorous Hollywood star. 

Gift cards for Bahama Breeze are always appreciated by us.   The onion ring appetizer... yummy!  Mojitos with fresh mint... EVEN YUMMIER!

A quick drawing my grandson did for me.  :)

Greta can usually be found in the bathroom next to the heat vent but the one in the kitchen is bigger and since the recycle box hadn't gone out yet she could hide inside while getting warm and take swipes at anyone foolish enough to walk by.

While hanging out in the bedroom one day, Ron put a knit hat on Ollie and I thought it was so cute so I ran to get the camera.  Why I ended up taking pictures of the ceiling, I have no idea.  But what was weird was seeing all the orbs when I uploaded the pictures.    

So what do you think, are orbs just assorted airborne particles captured at the time of the flash?  Maybe they are spirits of the dead or nature spirits?  I'd like to think they are something from the ethereal world but we do have a whole lot of dust in our house so I guess that explanation makes more sense. 

On New Year's Eve we had a few friends over.  One of them totally gets into fireworks.  Since the houses in our neighborhood are pretty close together he wasn't able to put on a big display like he does with the club he belongs to, but he did light a few to celebrate at midnight.  Of course my camera was not on the firework setting so it really just looks like our lawn was on fire.  I'll blame that on either one of the two strawberry dacquiri's I had, or maybe it was the Beaujolais wine, or it could have been the champagne at midnight. 

The neighborhood did fill with smoke temporarily.  LOL

Our pyrotechnician assured us that all was well and we just enjoyed the mini show.

My girlfriend ready and willing to enjoy a Hap Hap HAPPY New Year!

While out looking for something at a local craft store a few days ago, I found this cross ornament.  It was on the clearance rack for under $3.00.  I think it's beautiful and will probably keep it out all year.   And actually, it now seems quite fitting because of the next picture and story.

I've been cleaning and organizing my craft room lately.  Wow, did it need it!!  Today, I came across a box from an order I'd placed with a company in Jerusalem that sold olive wood beads and other items.    This was a rosary I made for my husband years ago.   

He kept them in his truck for awhile and then I must have asked to use them as a guide for some other rosaries that a few people had ordered and I forgot to give them back. Since he's not a practicing Catholic and wasn't when he was saying the Rosary either (it was just one part of the religion that he liked at one time), that they got put aside is not a big deal but what was interesting about my coming across them was that today at work he put in a request with ... God.  Lately, he's been feeling frustrated with a few things, his spirituality included I guess, and he asked for a sign.  After I found the rosary beads, I took a couple pictures and then put them on his desk.

When I called him this afternoon and mentioned that I had found them, it was then he told me about asking for the sign. What else that's interesting is that last night I was putting something up on the wall in my craft room and had to move the plastic rosary that hung in the space I wanted.  They were a set that was given to us right before our son went in for a surgery many years ago by a religious patient or family member in the holding area and were still in his bedroom when I took it over as my craft room and he moved upstairs.  I didn't want to just throw them in a drawer so I hung them on the closet door. The closet is my husband's since I don't need it for craft supplies.   And one other thing... a few days ago I saw a set of rosary centerpieces on Nitebyrd's Etsy page and bought them without having any specific reason for doing so. I just thought they might be something I could incorporate into future jewelry creations. 

Curious and interesting, yes I think so.

I hope you are all enjoying a nice beginning to 2012.  If you make resolutions, feel free to share one here.   Or maybe you chose a personal word of the year?  I don't do resolutions but do have a word that I'll work with this year, but since I'll be needing another topic for a future blog post, I'll tell you about it later.